Friday Open Thread
So many threads to get to including Director Burke's meeting on the reopening of Lincoln High (about 250 in attendance.) And, he has the sole director community meeting tomorrow, Oct. 29th, at the Fremont Library from 11 am-1 pm.
If Richard Sherman of the Seahawks played Quiddich who would be on his team (and guess who is a Seahawks fan?)
Via Puget Sound Journal, top 136 elementary schools in region for academics/diversity. (Warning; at least on my browser, this article loads very slowly.) Olympic Hills ranks #1 with Kimball and Van Asselt at #4 and #5.
What's on your mind?
If Richard Sherman of the Seahawks played Quiddich who would be on his team (and guess who is a Seahawks fan?)
Via Puget Sound Journal, top 136 elementary schools in region for academics/diversity. (Warning; at least on my browser, this article loads very slowly.) Olympic Hills ranks #1 with Kimball and Van Asselt at #4 and #5.
Rather than just look at test scores, which would produce a list of schools that most of us have seen before, we also considered a school's racial diversity, economic diversity and teacher experience.Letter from Olympic Hills PTA on 2017 boundaries and Cedar Park.
It's easy to see how schools like Medina Elementary and Blackwell Elementary, both with fewer than 2 percent of students receiving free and reduced lunch, rank high on lists of top schools. These are students whose parents are actively involved in their education, who read to them every night, who help them with their homework.
It's rare to see these schools mixed in with schools like Olympic Hills Elementary and Van Asselt Elementary, both in Seattle, where three-quarters or more of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. At Van Asselt, No. 5 on our list, 95 percent of the students identify as a race other than white.
The boundary changes were drawn in response to projected growth that never materialized and continuing with the plan as is will drastically decrease diversity across the north end, concentrating the majority of our historically underserved population at Olympic Hills and Cedar Park. Moving forward with needless changes will also disrupt the education and established communities of more than 800 students throughout North Seattle.Washington State students in 4th and 8th grades scores higher than the national average on the NAEP science test.
What's on your mind?
Comments
It's rare to see these schools mixed in with schools like Olympic Hills Elementary and Van Asselt Elementary, both in Seattle, where three-quarters or more of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. At Van Asselt, No. 5 on our list, 95 percent of the students identify as a race other than white"
So... if a=b and b=c then a=c.
Thanks Puget Sound Business Journal, and thanks to Save Our Schools for another completely tone-deaf post on race, poverty and education.
Your true colors are showing. Again.
Opinions from my own brain, the sarcasm too.
Voodoo Child
Also - student enrollment that's less than 5% white is just as much a sign of racially segregated neighborhoods as enrollment at another school that's 95% white.
Reprinting for Anonymous (next time please give yourself a name):
Melissa -I attended last night's meeting about Lincoln HS and have my opinions but would love to hear your thoughts about the meeting and the re-opening of Lincoln.
It refers to "Change in legislative rules would reduce the amount Seattle would receive from our local levy ($30.7M)." But it looks like it refers to the levy cliff, which is expected to go away through legislative action.
I worry that SPS is trying to scare all of us into telling them that it's OK for them to cut things they want to cut.
The *only* answer here is to tell SPS "we will not play your game. You may not make any budget cuts. Instead we are going to Olympia to demand we get full funding - to do more than cover the $70 million, but to ensure we have more than enough money to give every child a great education."
I cannot emphasize this enough: don't play their game. We have to present a united front to SPS. We have to tell them not to propose any cuts, we have to refuse to rank priorities, and then we all go to Olympia and fight for what we need.
They're proposing to make decisions in November? No. Absolutely not.
They seem to think the money will not come in time for this budget and therefore cuts will need to be made. More on this to come.
Here's the exact wording from the doc that Robert linked to under the heading "Managing Expectations":
*Worst case scenario must be planned for, but is unlikely.
*Don’t want to appear to be “crying wolf”, but need to communicate that there will be reductions unless we receive net new revenue
*Still significant challenges if worst case does not occur.
*Concerns about time to react to potential good legislative news, could be too late for major staffing shifts.
reader47
Mom of 4
-BT
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38173-how-the-federal-govt-is-using-america-s-concern-with-bullying-as-an-excuse-to-spy-on-teens
The Obama administration is instructing the multiple federal agencies behind the national Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program to "find opportunities" to integrate into bullying prevention networks at the local level, according to a strategic plan released by the White House last week. The move could open the door for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to apply a counter-terror mentality to youth wellness and safety, in a national environment where law enforcement already plays an outsized role in the education system.
-McClureWatcher
I was at the meeting last night and will post with substance (what little there was) soon. Hoping to hear Melissa's (and others') read on it too ...
Concerned Hamilton and Cascadia parent
I would think that mapping out what services would look like by going through the budget process would help paint a more precise picture as to why those funds are so needed and could support the cause.
I get where you are coming from and I am curious to see more discussion about strategy around this issue. But I don't want SPS to whistle past the graveyard and assume the legislature isn't so bereft of gumption that they aren't willing to push our kids over the budget cliff.
-C-Hill
A from BT: The big question that it looks like will not be answered, the district's timeline is to tell families Fall 2018, one year prior to opening. Rick is proposing to move it up to Fall 2017, with wiggle room for changes. Apparently, we won't know programs, boundaries etc. until that time.
Yep. But note that even if Rick successfully gets that boundary decision moved up a year to Fall 2017, that's still way behind what the schedule should be. Why? Because it's not until AFTER they get the geographic boundaries figured out that they can then work on figuring out which programs and pathways will be there, etc. This means we won't know until sometime in 2018 if Lincoln will become a north-end HCC pathway and/or an international school/immersion pathway school. It also means that if WE don't know until then, the planning principal also won't know until then...so how much planning for that will they really be able to do? Will they manage to have key departmental staff all hired in time to develop all the courses and put together a course catalog and organize all the extracurriculars and so on, so that people can check them out at the open houses that will need to happen in late 2018/early 2019? Seems like a pretty tight schedule even if bumped up. (But kudos to Rick for at least working on this as a better, if not ideal, schedule. The district's Fall 2018 plan is so unbelievably flawed it suggests mass incompetence. How on earth could they think setting boundaries in Nov 2018, then finalizing programs/pathways in January 2019 would give them enough time to figure out a master schedule, course catalog, and hire counselors to work with all the incoming students from all sorts of feeder schools in May/June?)
One other comment re: Lincoln planning. If they end up pulling students from Roosevelt (AP-rich) and Ballard (AP-rich), and end up making Lincoln the north-end HCC pathway school (pulling students from AP-rich Garfield), it seems like the question of whether Lincoln should be an AP-focused or IB-focused school is pretty much decided for us. We need to serve the students who will be sent to Lincoln. I think there was a recent international schools advisory group that recommended making it an international school--that's fine as a supplementary focus, but it seems Lincoln will need plenty of AP classes to support its incoming students in continuing on their established academic pathways.
HF
More to the point, we undermine a united front in the legislature if parents are out there thinking they can cut some other kid's program.
I can't imagine any schoolchild getting through a 10% budget cut unscathed -I am confident there would will be a united front no matter what if we hit the cliff. But I do acknowledge that invariably some kids will be hit harder than others with any shortfall. - C-Hill
1) I don't understand - what is it about Garfield that makes it the north end's HCC high school? Is it the number of AP classes it offers or something more? Doesn't Roosevelt have almost as many AP classes? Is Garfield at risk of overcrowding soon, so there's a capacity need to create Lincoln as the HCC pathway instead? I'm sure that'd make a lot of people unhappy as Garfield is so good and Lincoln, well, who knows. I just don't understand what more Garfield is than AP classes, which Roosevelt and Ballard also provide.
2) Is Ingrahm's IB program hard to get into, or open to any student who wants it? Are the McDonald and JSIS students any more eligible for Ingrahm's IB programs than other students? Do they get preference or an automatic "in" over others who weren't in language immersion in elementary school? I am aware that "international" label at Hamilton is pretty meaningless, I'm just trying to understand the pathway as currently stands. Is there any preferential acceptance?
Sorting it Out
Rather than asking for one focus or another, I'd be working with the district to define what they consider baseline offerings for a comprehensive high school. What world languages will be offered? Will all languages start at Year 1 (IHS and GHS did not offer French 1 this year - keeping the higher level pathways was prioritized). What happens if you've been taking Latin? Will you be forced to start a new world language? What will be the highest levels of science, math, etc. They know their students will be drawn mostly from Ballard and Roosevelt areas, so they should have a pretty good idea what is offered currently. Will they still have enough of a cohort at all high schools for students to take their planned senior classes? Will there be mitigation funds to account for scheduling challenges those first few years? Parents need to start asking these questions now.
I think it is highly unlikely for Lincoln to have IB. Not only is there a multi-year accreditation process, but is decreases the flexibility of scheduling and course offerings. What parents could ask for is the new AP program that is similar to IB in that has an essay option.
-parent
https://advancesinap.collegeboard.org/ap-capstone
-parent
Helen
realist
-costume planning
Ugh, of COURSE it is. But I love the STEAM idea. Go Team STEAM!
My two cents at the moment is we should dream big about what would make Lincoln a place where lots of families would LIKE to send their students. What's not in the north end right now, and could be potentially exciting being near UW and just being in Seattle, is STEAM. I think that is one of the few themed schools that could be exciting to a large population - international, HCC, non-HCC. Of course there's no one way to implement STEAM so who knows what could happen at District level, but there's something for parents to rally around anyway. And maybe it doesn't have to cost more than anything else, I don't know. But this is for another thread.
Sorting it Out
-NW
It is worth noting that Seattle will be disproportionately impacted. Seattle relies, heavily on levy dollars- there are other districts that are less reliant on levy dollars. Other districts have dollars in reserve to cover loss of levy dollars. Because Seattle heavily relies on levy dollars...the district can not make-up the difference, in total, with reserve funding.
No decisions have been made. The budget process is just beginning. Families will begin to understand the depth of potential cuts in January. Families will no doubt be upset.
I do hope individuals organize and head to Olympia, and fight to keep cuts away from special programs and WSS enhancements.
http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/elizabeth-warren-clarifies-the-charter-schools-debate/
I left the meeting completely discouraged. SPS is just so far behind in dealing with high school. There was valid concern about geo-splits and disruptions in high school course pathways, but scheduling challenges are already happening at high schools due to capacity and staffing limitations. As rough as the opening of Lincoln might be, the next two years concern me even more.
-counting down
Counting down-- I agree. There is no plan to address the increasing capacity in the interim (prior to 2019) and the high schools already are well over capacity. They already have scheduling challenges and can't handle more. This is a question that needs an answer. We also HOPE Ingraham will have added 500 seats by then and that Lincoln is ready.
-NW
These meetings were held by organized parents at the height of the closure madness. 500 parents attended two meetings one at Catherine Blaine and one at Roosevelt and demanded that SPS started to deal with the swiftly growing elementary school enrollment in NE Seattle and QA. SPS was fixated on closing schools and yet, there was significant enrollment growth at the lower grades in several parts of Seattle.
My take away from the Lincoln meeting is that SPS is fixated on "opening" Lincoln in 2019. However, parents are concerned about the graduating class of 2020 and beyond.
Once again, a very simple disconnect. Opening a high school is very different from opening an elementary, K8 or middle school. To graduate from 5th or 8th grade, you simply need to be promoted. To graduate from high school is a different story entirely. Each high school graduate has a unique path to complete their credit requirements, mandatory testing requirements. As such there is no "grade level" experience.
I am confident that facilities staff can get the building open by 2019, no problem. However, getting all of the pieces in place for the graduating class of 2020. None of that work has even been started.
I know you said "I think", but be careful giving out information that you don't really understand. Yes, there are schools that spend a great deal of time to suss out holistic information, but almost all colleges have high school "profiles" that are used to compare statistically-similar students coming from different schools. At some high schools it's nearly impossible to get a 4.0 GPA, while at others you just have to show up and do some modicum of work to get an A in many classes. Colleges do know this, and they build up that knowledge base over many years.
You many not like this policy, and it's unfortunate for some kids, but the reality is that colleges want to maximize the chances that every student they accept will be successful at their school because they in turn are being graded and ranked. Among other things, colleges want high rates of on-time graduation.
This doesn't mean that kids in the first few graduating classes at Lincoln will automatically be rejected from their top choice schools. Rather, it will depend on the efforts of each college to look beyond the data they already have, and to be open to taking kids from a complete unknown. Some schools will do that, others very likely won't. They will ALL say they look at students holistically, but because the process is purposely shrouded in mystery, kids (and families) will never know for sure why they were rejected.
Again, this is all HIGHLY dependent on each individual college.
- Rick Burke did a great job of being flexible to the attendees and going with an open Q&A instead of the "divide and conquer" table format of usual SPS meetings. While this was much appreciated, there were some people toward the front who treated it as their own personal discussion with Rick. That was very frustrating to those who may have had different points of view. But overall, I'd take that open Q&A format any time over the table format.
- It would help ease anxiety and allow parents to plan if we knew the boundaries and decision for roll-up vs. GeoSplit in 2017 instead of 2018. It would also give a parent planning community time to group together and support the school, and create a Lincoln community based on existing alumni support. So if Rick can get this timeline acceleration done, that would be fantastic on many fronts.
- There was a lot of talk about making the school an attractive draw with HCC pathway, AP courses, IB, International Language, STEAM, etc. That was very confusing to me (And frustrating as these voices were drowning out others and the ones not waiting their turn, allowing others to talk). Lincoln will be a neighborhood high school, not an option school. You aren't going to be "drawing" kids in with some special program, they are going to be assigned there based on geography. So first and foremost, get those boundaries drawn and communicated. Then focus on making it a strong, comprehensive high school with courses for the "regular" high school student. Any focus can come after that.
-Funding - call your senators and legislators, people, all about McCleary. If the 250+ people in that room went down to Olympia with the same energy and focus and camped on their doorstep for funding they way they just advocated for Lincoln, it would make a statement.
- I did overhear several parents say something to the effect of "Oh well, if my kid gets drawn into a Lincoln geo-split and we don't like it, we can just rent an apt in XX neighborhood for a couple of years to keep our kid where they are". This will definitely happen for those that can afford it and don't see switching to private as an option.
- any rumors you may hear about which students will be drawn into Lincoln are just that, rumors. Nothing has been drawn yet, draft of otherwise. A few assumptions were made for enrollment projections but with how fast things are changing, I'm sure
- As was mentioned above, By the time Lincoln opens, Ballard and Roosevelt are going to be so crowded and crazy, that getting into Lincoln may seem like a gift instead of a losing proposition.
Future Lincoln Parent
While I agree with you that it's silly (though perhaps exciting/inspiring?) to be brainstorming what would attract people to Lincoln--since in all likelihood SPS will be deciding who goes there--I strongly disagree with the notion that the focus should first and foremost be on making it a high school for the "regular" high school student.
As things stand, there's a good chance Lincoln will become, in addition to a neighborhood school, the north end HCC pathway school and/or a language immersion pathway school. In the event that these pathways are redirected to Lincoln, we have to appropriately serve these students as well--and this may require a somewhat expanded range of course offerings, even in year 1 when it may not be a "full" school.
This goes back to the heart of the matter--who will be going to Lincoln? We need to know WHO the school will serve before we can have any meaningful conversation about WHAT the school will offer. And before the planning principal can effectively plan.
That said, I don't think there has to be any great conflict. Even if we end up with your "regular" neighborhood kids AND immersion kids AND HCC kids, the needs aren't all that different in the big scheme of things. Neighborhood kids being geo-split from AP-rich programs at Ballard and Roosevelt will need significant AP offerings, as would HCC students pulled from AP-rich Garfield. And immersion students, if sent to Lincoln instead of Ingraham, would need access to higher levels of foreign language, which isn't a bad thing given the Core24 foreign language requirement.
Works4All
Sorting it out:
1) HCC: right now, the official pathways for HCC in HS are Ingraham IB or IBx and Garfield. However, there is not really HCC in HS (the "pathway" simply means that kids who are identified as HCC can get automatic assignment to IHS or GHS). Instead, students who are HCC identified take honors and AP (which you can get into without having done HCC) and the next class in a series based on what was taken in MS (so, for example, most kids who took HCC in middle would enter at the level of chemistry for science and algebra 2 for math). However, some in the northend who did HCC in middle elect to go to their neighborhood schools, Ballard and Roosevelt. If you want IB in the northend, you have to go to IHS, but if you want honors and AP, you can get the same classes at RHS and BHS without the commute to GHS (GHS has 1 more AP class than RHS and BHS - each school does their honors differently in lower grades, but anecdotally they "feel" very similar now that GHS is doing "honors for all"). Certainly, people have opinions about which school is better and each school may have a different feel, but from a course catalogue perspective, BHS, GHS, and RHS are more similar than different in their offerings of honors and AP.
2) IHS is a neighborhood school and they are all hard to get into if you aren't in the neighborhood or, in the case of IHS, HCC identified. So technically any student can request IHS, but are very unlikely to get in if not in the neighborhood or HCC. Language immersion has no high school pathway and isn't any more likely to get into IHS.
signed,
Future Lincoln Parent?
Currently, the only automatic assignment for HCC is Garfield. HCC students can choose IHS/IBX during open enrollment, but they aren't promised a spot. SPS enrollment attempted to restrict HCC enrollment at IHS this past year, but ended up allowing students to enroll based on conflicting language on the SPS website. It is not clear how the 2017-18 enrollment will be handled, or if Garfield will remain the default pathway for HCC.
My understanding is that Lincoln is being planned as a neighborhood school, so why is it being discussed as an HCC pathway school? Is this speculation from parents? Has staff mentioned something that leads parents to believe it will be anything other than a neighborhood school? Are they going to dissolve the HCC HS pathways, which means Lincoln would serve an HCC cohort?
What is known, and what is speculation?
In the absence of information, the rumor mill will fill the void...
-parent
I think the district would very much like to dissolve high school HCC pathways, but since the only place there are or ever have been hcc only classes at high school is Ingraham ibx(so no extra staff or class size inefficiencies), the cohort is very convenient for capacity planning- a ready made bunch of students you can take from an overenrolled place, and place them in an underenrolled place. So I am not sure if they will. However, our family would leave the cohort rather than go to Garfield at this point, as would most other middle school Roosevelt area HCC families I know. Not sure how that will play out over the next two years.
-sleeper
"2) IHS is a neighborhood school and they are all hard to get into if you aren't in the neighborhood or, in the case of IHS, HCC identified. So technically any student can request IHS, but are very unlikely to get in if not in the neighborhood or HCC. Language immersion has no high school pathway and isn't any more likely to get into IHS."
This is incorrect. North End language immersion students DO have a pathway to Ingraham High School currently. Of course, capacity is the tail that wags the dog so this may well change, but as of today, there is a pathway and it's Ingraham.
http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=2904087
In the Northwest region, the two elementary International Schools, John Stanford International School and McDonald International School, feed into Hamilton International Middle School, but Hamilton students do not necessarily get assigned to Ingraham High School, which is a designated International School. The compromise has been to offer students who began in an elementary International School the opportunity for a K-12 pathway, i.e., from John Stanford and, in fall 2016, McDonald) to Hamilton, then on to Ingraham. This can be confusing, but the district is working to ensure that Ingraham has a complete list of 8th graders from Hamilton who originally completed grade 5 at John Stanford or McDonald since these students are entitled to register for Ingraham if they choose.
--Concerned Hamilton and Cascadia parent
Erin Jones hired Stand for Children's former lobbyist for fundraising purposes. Jones has accepted thousands and thousands of dollars from individuals that have poured tens of thousands of dollars into Stand for Children.
The mailer says next to nothing. There is nothing to indicate that she is qualified or ready to run OSPI.
I'm voting Reykdal. Reykdal has a strong history of supporting public education, teachers, homeless students and students in need of mental health. He has a MPA and his experience spans from teacher, school board member legislator and into higher education.